


Home isn't four walls it's a heartbeat

by OrionPax



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Real World, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-16
Updated: 2015-05-16
Packaged: 2018-03-30 21:17:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3952102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrionPax/pseuds/OrionPax
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Schnee Dust Couriers is one of the best bike messenger companies in Vale. Blake newly having left collage and in need of a day job has been hired. Her first day is some training with Winter and Ruby.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home isn't four walls it's a heartbeat

The traffic in central Vale was rough even on a Saturday. The city slowed down slightly for the weekend but it never really stopped. Traveling by bike was like swimming up a stream full of heavy rocks. Blake had spent long enough in this town as a poor student to know how to thread through the cars and still make it to her destination alive and on time. She had just about made ends meet by working in the college library but now her education was done she was out of school and out of a job.

Which was the main reason she was glad to have found a vacancy at Schnee Dust Couriers. She had enough saved up to last a few more months in her dinky apartment but after that she would be out on the streets with no way to get food. That wouldn’t be a problem now, today she was being shown the ropes and then Monday was her first day of actual work. But how hard could being a bike messenger be? This was easy money.

Cutting into the park she was passing Blake was happy to be away from the cars for a little bit. SDC should be not far from the other side given the directions she had been given. Having somewhere like this nearby was nice, she even spotted a pond through the trees. Blake made a mental note to come here sometime and read a book under the trees. Maybe it would be a place to eat for her lunch breaks. Everything about this job seemed to be looking up.

Blake had been hearing horror stories about her friends and classmates failing to find any kind of job but here she was with one only a few weeks out of school. It was going to be easy, paid well enough to support her current lifestyle, gave her some exercise she might otherwise have missed out on and had some lovely scenery.

Coming out of the park on the other side Blake slipped back into the flow of traffic for a few minutes before coming to a stop outside of SDC. The place sure didn't look like much compared to the much more eye catching shops and business' on either side, the most notable thing was the door being wider than usual. She hadn’t been told otherwise so Blake decided to enter through the front. There didn't seem to be anywhere good to lock up her bike but she was sure it would be ok a minute while she asked where to put it. The door was unlocked and pushed open easily to let her inside.

A small bell rang over her head as she entered but Blake didn't go further than the doorway. The entire area was open in front of her, there wasn't really a difference between the business front and the back area. Directly in front of her was a desk taken up by a series of computer monitors and phones then beyond that was an area set aside for working on the bikes which explained the extra-large door. It was to make it easier to come in with a bike in tow. Right at the back was a corner sofa and a small table.

Stood in the middle of the room next to a bike where two women. They were talking about something and the shorter girl was twirling a wheel from the bike in her hands. The other woman noticed Blake and waved her over. "Hey you must be Blake, come on over and bring your bike in with you. We don't stand on ceremony here."

Blake was glad that in the second she hadn't had eyes on her bike it hadn’t run away and pulled it inside. "I was expecting Mr. Schnee to be here?"

"Oh no dad hardly ever shows his face here Even for training days." The woman said. "You'll have to put up with his daughter, which would be me, Winter."

Blake wasn't exactly disappointed, she hadn’t got the best vibe off of Mr. Schnee during the job interview. The fact he kept the business at arm’s length was only good news to her. "That's fine by me. And Winter? Is that a nickname?"

Winter laughed shortly. "Yeah it is kinda weird isn't it? I'll admit it's not the name I was born with but it's not exactly a nickname either."

There wasn't a chance to question that further as there was a sharp intake of breath from the region of Blake's knees. She looked down and then took a surprised step back when she found the other girl was looking closely at her bike. "Wow this is an old school Ironwood right? The new ones have some shaky suspension issues. With a Beacon brand set of tires. Much better traction than the native Ironwood ones so I'm unsurprised you did that. Wow this girl must feel great when she's between your legs." The girl still hadn’t taken her eyes off of Blake's bike but she had correctly identified it.

"That's an odd way to phrase it but I guess so." Blake looked to Winter for help.

Winter grabbed the girl and pulled her upright. "Sorry this is Ruby and she's an odd girl. She's ok when you get to know her just comes on pretty strong. Big fan of bikes. She's gonna be showing you the ropes today." Winter dug Ruby in the ribs and Ruby responded by putting her hand out to Blake.

"I'm sorry Blake. It's nice to meet you and your girl." Ruby said as Blake shook her hand. "She's very lovely, does she have a name?"

"Not really no." Blake said with a shrug.

Ruby looked aghast. "She doesn't have a name? Winter she doesn't have a name. Blake she should have a name."

"I know Ruby but let's not scare away the nice girl before she even starts working here. Sorry Blake, like I said Ruby's an odd girl. To be honest everyone working here is in their own way. But on the other hand, Ruby show her your cute face." Winter poked Ruby again.

Ruby smiled the most awkward and clumsy smile Blake had ever seen. It shouldn't have been as cute as it was. It really shouldn't have been. Blake had to put a stop to this right now. "Well I'll see what I can do about a name. Thanks for giving up your Saturday to train me though. You should get that tire on your bike right?"

With a start Ruby grabbed the wheel and got to work. Winter moved over to the desk and beckoned for Blake to follow. She flopped down on the chair and turned to face Blake. "I'm not giving up on anything really. I live in an apartment upstairs so after we give you the run around I can go right back to bed or mooch in front of the TV or something. Oh and I have a room going free if you need a place to live? Real convenient and right next to the place you work?"

Blake leaned on the desk. "No I have a place to call home."

Winter spun back to the desk. "Well open offer if you ever need a place to crash. Anyway this is where I do the magic." She gestured to the computer screens. "I run the phones and tell you gals what to take from where to where. Customers call up and I take their details. Next if one of you is here I send you out on the job or if not I find the next available person and send them on to their next job. Pretty simple in general."

"Yes your job sounds so easy while the rest of us are dodging cars." Blake muttered.

"Ok I take your hint." Winter laughed and began pulling things out from under her desk. "So for your part you get you info over the phone or in person. If you need a hands free kit we can provide one. Then you get this fancy scmancy GPS unit that goes on your handlebars and tap in the locations. They charge over night over on the wall by the sofa so you don't have to worry about that. When you get there you go up to the reception or whatever and tell them you're from SDC. They give you the thing and you give them a receipt of collection from this pad. On the other end you give them the thing and a receipt of delivery from that pad. You keep a copy of both and bring them back for our records."

"Don't get those pads mixed up that doesn't go down well." Ruby said from Blake's shoulder.

Blake raised an eyebrow. "You've done that before?"

"Not me but my sister has." Ruby said with her cute smile back on her face.

"Yeah you'll meet her on Monday." Winter said. She pulled a messenger back out and put it with the other things. "Now as for uniform you get a bag and a t-shirt with the company logo on. Let me know your shirt size and I'll pull some out of the storage room by the time you and Ruby get back from your trail run."

Ruby slotted her own GPS into its housing on her bike. "Well me and Crescent Rose are raring to go. You ready to hit the mean streets of vale in a valiant quest to take peoples boring paperwork from one end to the other?"

Winter beckoned Blake to lean in and whispered to her. "Since you are going out with Ruby I put an extra first aid kid in there for you. Have fun."

*******

Blake almost collapsed off of her bike and panted for breath when Ruby finally decided they had reached the destination. It wasn't too much of a problem if Blake fell behind since Ruby had walked her through using the GPS and had keyed in where they were going. But she had the feeling that getting left behind would not reflect well on her. She had not been expecting Ruby to move so fast though, and the girl didn't even look slightly out of breath. "Hey Ruby if you were secretly a robot from the future designed to be the perfect bike messenger you would tell me right?"

Ruby giggled as she rummaged in her bag. "Affirmative. Now Winter gave me something to act as a package so that we can go through that side of things." After a bit more rummaging Ruby pulled a scrap of paper out of her bag and held it aloft in triumph. "Aha! Now let's see what we have here. Oh gosh Winter what is this?" She looked a little flustered as she read the note over again.

Pulling the receipt note pad from her own bag Blake moved over closer. "What does the note say?" Rather than answer Ruby held the note out for Blake to read. Blake leaned down slightly and read Winter's hand written note _the package is a kiss on the cheek_ as she finished Ruby made use of Blake being slightly lowered and did just that. Blake stood straight up in surprise. "That Winter is pretty shameless isn't she?"

"Yeah she can be pretty bad. I have the feeling Yang will want a few words with her I'm sure." Ruby fidgeted a second before looking up at Blake. "You don't mind do you?"

Blake would have preferred to avoid the physical contact with someone she didn't know so well but she couldn't bring herself to get mad at Ruby. She could for sure bring herself to be mad at Winter. "Don't worry about it you're fine. I will take Winter aside when we get back. If I'm feeling generous I might even leave some of her left for Yang to have words with." While she was talking Blake filled in the boxes on the receipt pad, it was pretty much self-explanatory.

Ruby relaxed a little as she took the receipt. "Thanks for that. There's a pocket at the front of your bag designed to hold your receipt copies."

Before Ruby could finish putting her things away Blake spotted something and grabbed Ruby's wrist. Turning her arm over Blake confirmed what she had thought. Ruby had a long cut down her forearm. "What happened to you?"

"Oh that. I guess I cut a corner too tight, I'm always getting cuts and bruises." Ruby looked at the cut and then leaned down to lick up the blood. "There you go, all better." But the cut was already starting to redden with fresh blood.

Blake was starting to see why Winter had given her an extra first aid kit. "I'm going to bandage you up. If you bleed out and fall off of your bike I'd have trouble explaining why I came back alone."

Ruby watched her work for a moment. "So is this a summer job for you?"

"No I just finished school. I needed a day job while I work on what I really want to do." Blake said. She finished on Ruby's arm and looked back at her face. Ruby clearly wanted to know more. "I want to be a writer." She didn’t like telling people because they tended to be dismissive. If she was told 'oh everyone thinks they can write the next big thing these days' one more time she would punch someone.

"Wow that's so coooool." Ruby almost yelled. "I'm gonna read everything you put out for sure! So what kind of books do you like? I need something new to read and everyone else at SDC is terrible at book recommendations."

Blake was taken aback. "Well I'll let you know when I have something worth publishing. I mostly read fantasy books and I could lend you some if you want. I have a decent size collection."

They got back on their bikes and started making their way to the next point Winter had chosen for them on this practice route, this time at a more human pace, chatting about their favourite books the whole way.

*******

The bell rang again as Blake re-entered SDC. She stepped aside and held the door for Ruby to come in. Winter was still there at her desk but had her feet up and was playing a game on her phone. Looking up Winter smiled. "Hey welcome back. Everything go well?"

"Yeah she's going to fit right in here. The only thing missing is she still hasn't named her bike." Ruby said as she put down Crescent Rose's kick stand. "I'm going to grab a drink, does anyone else want something?"

Winter indicated the unopened can sat on her desk. "I'm good for now thanks."

"Just a water is fine by me." Blake said. She watched as Ruby bounced over to the back of the room and vanished past a door. Assumedly there was a kitchen area back there. She turned back to Winter. "A kiss on the cheek huh?"

Winter got up and opened up her arms to try and appear less threatening. "Hey now, it was just a joke. Not like I was making you do it." Then a sly look came onto her face. "You didn't do it did you?"

"What's that have to do with anything?" Blake spat glancing back at the door to make sure Ruby wasn't on her way back.

"Oh my gosh you did." Winter put her hand on the desk for support as she did her best not to laugh out loud. "I expected you two to just laugh about it and move on. I never expected you do it. Wow do you like Ruby?"

Blake cleared the desk with ease and clapped her hand over Winter's mouth. "I don't like Ruby let's get that clear. I think she's cute and I really like talking to her but that's it. Now don't you spill a word of this to her." Winter struggled and managed to almost slip Blake's grip. They wrestled for dominance for a few seconds.

"Am I interrupting something?" Ruby said from the door.

The pair froze in place, Blake had Winter in a head lock and Winter was reaching up to tug at Blake's hair. They looked over to see Ruby approaching with a bottle of water in one hand and a mug of something in the other. Blake was the first to respond. "No no everything's fine here."

"Just a little horse play is all." Winter followed up. They separated and Blake gratefully accepted the water as an excuse not to talk for a moment. "Well I agree with you Ruby. I think Blake is going to be a fun addition to our little family. And she can actually fill out the paper work unlike some other people when they started out."

Ruby grinned. "Poor Jaune. He didn't have a very good first day at all."

Winter grabbed her drink and popped the top. "Well everyone I propose a toast to our new worker finishing her training."

They knocked their very different drinks together as instructed. "I'm looking forwards to seeing more of you Blake." Ruby said.

"Yeah me too." Muttered Blake. She noticed Winter give her another sly look and she responded with a glare. "Well I'm going to head home unless there's anything else?"

"Naw you're good to go. We can pick up on anything else on the job." Winter said.

"Oh hold on a minute and I'll head out with you." Ruby said and started gulping down her drink.

*******

"Hey Winter is that spare room still open?" Blake said when Winter picked up the phone.

The fire engines had been outside Blake's apartment building when she had gotten back home. The fire was pretty much out by this point but there was no way of avoiding the fact she was now homeless. She had liked that place A lot and had lost some things. On the plus side most of her things were in a storage unit so she didn't have to start entirely over.

"Changed your mind already? It hasn't even been a day." Winter joked on the other end of the line.

"Let's cut the jokes please. My place is ash right now." Blake said.

"Oh wow are you ok?" It was nice to hear the concern in Winter's voice but right now Blake just wanted to find a bed to collapse in.

"I'm fine. I just need a place to crash for a few days until I find somewhere else."


End file.
